The Animation Pimp: Blame the U.S.A.
This month the Animation Pimp Chris Robinson takes on the U.S. job drain to Canada and reveals it is actually a two way street and has been for many a year...
This month the Animation Pimp Chris Robinson takes on the U.S. job drain to Canada and reveals it is actually a two way street and has been for many a year...
Have you ever thought that Ren and Stimpy's popularity was based on their abstract representation of our early '90s fears and anxieties regarding political uncertainty and the AIDS epidemic? Well, Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman has.
Tired of Teletubbies and need another bizarre pre-school fix? Well check out Consortium of Gentlemen's Yoho Ahoy on the BBC. Soon you'll know every line...
Jon Hofferman joins us to review short films: The Dance of the Saracen Asparagus by Christophe Le Borgne, Maria Vasilkovsky's Fur & Feathers, Run of the Mill by Borge Ring, Andreas Hykade's Ring of Fire and Paul Fierlinger's long-awaited Still Life with Animated Dogs. Includes QuickTime movie clips!
Fred Patten reviews the latest anime releases inbluding: Outlaw Star, Cardcaptors, Cardcaptor Sakura, The Vision of Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop and Generator Gawl.
With the new Toy Story: The Ultimate Toy Box and Fantasia Anthology, Disney has clearly pulled ahead of the competition, putting together expansive bonus selections and features to showcase these great animated features. Gerard Raiti reports.
Cal Arts is presenting a project called "The One Second Film," a deconstruction of animation as an art form.
Jacquie Kubin visted New York City's Toy Fair and has a full report on the hot properties for 2001 and beyond. What's going to be in your Happy Meal? Read on...
Animation historian Jerry Beck will be presenting a retrospective of animator Gene Deitch. The screening will scan Deitch's career from his innovative work at UPA to his independent work in Prague.
The Webisode Academy is holding a voice and sound capture workshop. Attendees will go to an actual sound studio and record their voices. A discussion will follow about the uses of voice capture on the Web.
Black Logic has wrapped on a new five spot campaign for the Nasdaq Stock Exchange: "Qualcomm" uses the modem port on a laptop computer as the entrance to a visual world of digital communications; "Immunex" uses transparent CG human forms and brightly colored double helixes to introduce the world of advanced immunology; "Amazon" portrays that company's familiar Website interface to show how it created online commerce; "Biogen" opens with a group photo of the scientists who broke the human genetic code; and "Yahoo" develops the company's groundbreaking search engines, as a road map through a maz
PDI/DreamWorks has completed production on three new commercials for Monster.com, MSN and Target. PDI/DreamWorks brought Monster.com's green mascot, Trump, to life, working with renowned advertising agency Arnold Communications and live-action director Kinka Usher, on the humor spots which debuted during the Super Bowl. The PDI/DreamWorks team, led by director Larry Bafia, created the monster spokesperson for all five spots' endtags.
Goodspeed & Associates, Inc. has promoted Patrick Bennett to the newly created position of design director. Formerly a designer with the company, Patrick will be responsible for the daily overseeing of all creative work. Before joining Goodspeed over a year ago, Patrick held a variety of creative positions in graphic design, Web design and consulting for several magazines and cultural institutions, such as ESQUIRE, VANITY FAIR and Dia Center for the Arts. "Patrick has proved an invaluable asset for our rapidly growing company," said agency owner Bill Goodspeed.
Giant Studios' new animated short film FRUITS OF LABOR premiered this week in San Jose, California, and received a warm and enthusiastic response. The film features a cast of simple computer graphics characters - a shiny red apple, a man and a fly - animated in a stylized way and rendering with startling photo-realism. Rudy Poat, creative director for the project described the look as being, "something that looks like stop-motion and that fooled both the mind and the eye.
Nothing Real, the producer of popular compositing tool Shake, has announced that their new Tremor compositing system has entered into worldwide beta testing. Tremor is a front room, client-based compositing solution, engineered to handle the most demanding needs of HDTV, commercial video and broadcast production professionals. The product is built around a new, simplified and streamlined interface and incorporates the mature and production proven technology based on Shake's rendering engine. Tremor will be sold as an integrated compositing hardware/software product.
QEDSoft's QEDStream product line now natively supports the Kaydara FBX format. QEDStream users are now able to read FBX files, simplifying their production pipeline and enabling Web-content creation from the Kaydara suite of real-time 3D authoring tools. Designed to provide an authoring hub between major 3D packages, FBX provides a centralized working file format for vendors wishing to acquire, author and retarget 3D data and animation. "Using FBX and QEDStream in combination provides a superb channel for streaming both current and legacy content on the Web," said Michel Veys, COO of QEDSoft.
Walt Disney Home Video is releasing the direct-to-video sequel to LADY AND THE TRAMP, entitled LADY AND THE TRAMP II: SCAMP'S ADVENTURE. Arriving on DVD and video on February 27, 2001, the film, directed by Darrell Rooney (LION KING II) and Jeannine Roussel (POCAHONTAS II), follows the exploits of Lady and the Tramp's son Scamp, who wishes nothing more than to play in a world without fences.
Image Entertainment is releasing a compilation of animated romantic tales from the National Film Board of Canada, which have either won or been nominated for the Academy Award. Hitting stores on February 27, 2001, BEST OF THE BEST: ROMANTIC TALES will feature Oscar winner David Fine and Alison Snowden's BOB'S BIRTHDAY, along with A CHAIRY TALE, GEORGE AND ROSEMARY, STRINGS, THE STREET, WALKING, PAS DE DEUX, THE ROMANCE OF TRANSPORTATION IN CANADA, THE DRAG and THE FAMILY THAT DWELT APART. The DVD will retail for US$24.99.
ADV Films is releasing two new volumes of episodes from the anime hit, MONSTER RANCHERS, on February 27, 2001. "It's Time To Get Tough!" has the crew continuing their search for the Phoenix, but problems get bad when Suezo discovers his new super power. In "Racing To Win!," Holly is wounded by one of Black Worms' poison stingers and Tiger of the Wind must race time to find the berries to save her. Each tape contains three episodes and will sell for US$9.99 each.
Manga Entertainment will release the entire STREET FIGHTER II series in a four DVD set. The first two volumes will be released on February 27, 2001, followed by the final two on March 27, 2001. The DVDs include seven episodes (volume 4 has eight), three language options English-dubbed, Japanese and Japanese with English subtitles - trailers and theme song remixes. In the series, while traveling the globe, Ken, Ryu and Chun Li search out the best fighters to compete against while honing their skills. The DVDs will retail for US$29.95 each.
ADV Films is set to release the eighth volume of the MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO series on February 27, 2001. This installment reveals the truth about the Jovians to the crew of the Nadesico and the news hits Admiral Munetake very hard. "Memories" will sell for US$19.98 English-dubbed and $29.95 Japanese with English-subtitles.
Urban Vision Entertainment is set to release a special edition DVD of PET SHOP OF HORRORS on February 27, 2001. The film is a collection of four tales revolving around an exotic pet shop and its strange creatures each holding a tale of lost love, second chances and redemption. Toshio Hirata directed the film and the character design was done by VAMPIRE HUNTER D's Hisashi Abe. The DVD will feature audio commentary by English director and cast, deleted material and two language options English and Japanese. The DVD will sell for US$29.95.
ADV Films is releasing the 3D animated, children's TV series SHADOWRAIDERS on video. Hitting stores February 27, 2001, the series (which was called WAR PLANETS in the U.S.) tells the tale of four warring planets that must put aside their differences and defend their homes against the evil Beast Planet. Mainframe Entertainment created the series. The video will retail for US$14.98 on VHS and $24.98 on DVD.
Hey, hey, hey, FAT ALBERT fans, the hefty hero is coming to the big screen. Bill Cosby has signed a deal with 20th Century Fox to turn his beloved animated series into a live-action film, featuring some animated moments. Cosby will executive produce the film with his wife, Camille, and write the screenplay with Charles Kipps (EXILED: A LAW & ORDER MOVIE). Producer John Davis brought the project to Fox and will produce the film through his Davis Entertainment Co. No start date has been set but the first draft of the script should be finished within two to three weeks.